Guardian photo essay captures life in South Tyrol's Teutonic monastery

The Guardian published on Tuesday a photo essay by Austrian photographer Roland Reinstadler documenting daily life inside the Lanegg monastery in South Tyrol, the Italian province where German is the majority language. The images portray the cloistered priests and nuns of the Teutonic Order going about their rituals in a medieval complex set against the Dolomites.

The photo essay, described by the newspaper as a look at "the traditions, rituals and daily lives of its priests and nuns," offers rare access to a religious community that typically restricts contact with the outside world. Lanegg is one of the few remaining monasteries of the Teutonic Order, a Catholic religious order founded during the Crusades.

For the Aosta Valley, which like South Tyrol enjoys special autonomy status under the Italian constitution, the Guardian's coverage highlights how foreign media continue to be drawn to the linguistic and cultural distinctiveness of Italy's Alpine border regions. The two provinces share a history of Germanic and Romance language contact, though Valle d'Aosta's minority language is French rather than German.